Las Vegas high temperature falls a bit short of 51-year-old record
The Las Vegas temperature rose to 78 on Friday, a degree short of the record 79 for Feb. 11, set in 1971.
“We’d need a wind and it’s getting a bit too close to sunset,” National Weather Service meteorologist Clay Morgan said shortly before 4 p.m. on the chances of the official measuring station at Harry Reid International Airport getting to the daily record or possibly 80 degrees.
At Death Valley, the high reached 94, well past the existing record of 90 set in 1996.
The abundant warm weather has at least three more days to run in Las Vegas, according to the forecast.
After a high of 73 at Harry Reid International Airport on Thursday, the Friday high was expected to be around 76. The overnight low will be around 49.
The weekend highs, projected at 71 on Saturday and 73 on Sunday, are about 10 degrees above normal. Winds will be even lighter with the same sunny sky.
Monday will have a high around 75 before a low pressure trough brings a chance of some sprinkles or rain and a high near 66 on Tuesday.
“The trough will sort of flatten out the (high pressure) ridge on Tuesday and Wednesday,” said meteorologist Morgan Stessman, adding that the timing of the weather change is yet to be determined.
But she noted “it’s not time to hang up the jacket just yet” because highs by the middle of next week will “likely be back to more seasonal values in the mid-60s.”
The normal high for this time of year is 62.
Record Super Bowl heat
Southern California’s winter heat wave will continue through Super Bowl weekend along with locally gusty Santa Ana winds that drove a damaging brush fire, forecasters said Friday.
For Super Bowl Sunday, the high at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood could hit 85 degrees at kickoff, which would top the record of 84 set in Los Angeles in 1973 and could make it the hottest Super Bowl ever, forecasters said.
Contact Marvin Clemons at mclemons@reviewjournal.com. Follow @Marv_in_Vegas on Twitter. The Associated Press contributed to this story.
